Companies that are developing small launch vehicles or who provide rideshare launch services say they expect new Chinese launch vehicles to drive down launch prices, raising concerns among some of unfair competition.
SpaceNews.com

Loral Space and Communications wants to move ahead with a “strategic transaction” involving fleet operator Telesat that may spark a legal fight with Telesat’s other major shareholder, a Canadian pension fund.
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To prevent collisions in space, nations with advanced orbital monitoring abilities need to share data with each other. Russia, being skilled in space situational awareness (SSA), should be part of the global effort to protect the space environment, experts said March 15 at the Satellite 2018 conference here.
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In its budget proposal for the coming year, the U.S. Air Force is trying to send the same message to foreign adversaries and critics at home: the service definitely is not underestimating threats the United States and its allies face in space.
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With a stopgap spending bill set to expire in just over a week, House and Senate appropriators are continuing to negotiate provisions of an omnibus bill, including funding levels for some NASA programs.
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United Launch Alliance plans to increase its activities in the commercial launch market using both the current Atlas and future Vulcan rockets, while acknowledging that the U.S. government will remain its major customer for the foreseeable future.
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WASHINGTON — The Air Force on Wednesday awarded two major launch contracts to SpaceX and United Launch Alliance. Under the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, SpaceX received a $290 million firm-fixed-price contract for three GPS 3 missions. ULA was awarded a $351 million firm-fixed-price deal for Air Force Space Command (AFSPC)-8 and AFSPC-12 satellites […]
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Despite uncertainty about who will lead the agency after the end of April, NASA's current acting administrator says he expects little change in the agency's activities in the near future.
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The downward trend of satellite capacity pricing, brought about largely by the increase in more powerful high-throughput satellites, has prices trending between 35 and 60 percent lower than where they were two years ago, according to Northern Sky Research.
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“We can put a satellite phone in the hands of folks who don’t know how to use it and it won’t make a hill of beans difference,” said Ken Flowers, Iridium Communications vice president government.
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• The design, development and test of spacecraft power systems for on-board applications. This work encompasses the definition of centralised power systems having overall power levels up to 25 kilowatts, together with their interfaces with respect to solar arrays and batteries, the attendant power distribution/protection equipment and pyrotechnic activation functions. Detailed tasks include the overall system design necessary for the development of fault-tolerant power control and distribution concepts, the detailed design of the power regulators and the identification/use of tools and methods for ensuring dependable design and verification.

• The development of simulation blocks for system analysis (batteries, solar cells & arrays, power control and distribution units) useful for the independent evaluation of critical power and energy budgets (in support to running projects of the Agency).

• Support to laboratory activities concerning design and development or verification of circuits for power management and distribution (solar array and battery conversion electronics, power distribution and protection electronics, power conversion for generic and specific purposes, including redundancy and protections).

• Active involvement in critical R&D activities support (by simulation, worst case analysis and laboratory testing of the overall system or of the most critical sub-units).

• Assisting to the development and validation of worst case simulation blocks for electrical equipment analysis (converters, shunt regulators, current limiters, protections, critical telemetry or telecommand functions) useful for the independent check of the most critical equipment functionality and performances, in support to all programmes reviews where the power conditioning section is involved.

• The development and verification of high voltage design technologies and associated power converters, suitable for application as Electronic Power Conditioners (EPCs) for specialised spacecraft payloads such as Travelling Wave Tube Assemblies (TWTA’s) and Electric Propulsion Concepts.

• Specific Competence Requirements

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o Familiarity with simulation software for analogue systems (Mathlab-Simulink or similar) and circuit analysis tools such as P-SPICE or Microcap.

o Electrical power processing background, together with a good experience of digital and analogue electronics and control theory.

o Proven experience in the domain of power conditioning electronics together, with ‘hands on’ knowledge of the circuit design of such systems.

o Experience in the development of computer models, especially with SPICE-based simulators.

o Knowledge and the experience on High Voltage power conditioning for space application constitute an asset.